It's graduation season, but you don't need to be a recent graduate to
get a new start this summer. Whether you're looking for your first job
or just a new opportunity, check out these 20 companies with open
positions to fill this month.

Love the great outdoors? Consider some of these growing career opportunities.

We all like to get out of the office and into nature every once in a
while, but for some, the call of the wild is strong enough to lure them
from life behind a desk. If you're looking for an opportunity to spend
your working hours a little closer to nature, here are 10 growing jobs
for you to consider:

1.Wind turbine service technicians
install, maintain, and repair wind turbines. They inspect the exterior
and physical integrity of towers, perform routine maintenance on
turbines and collect turbine data for testing or research and analysis.

3. Anthropologists and archeologists
study the origin, development and behavior of humans. They examine the
cultures, languages, archeological remains and physical characteristics
of people in various parts of the world.

2011-2016 job growth – 12%

2016-2021 job growth – 9%

Median hourly earnings – $29.50

4. Geoscientists
study the physical aspects of the Earth, such as its composition,
structure and processes, to learn about its past, present and future.

2011-2016 job growth – 11%

2016-2021 job growth – 9%

Median hourly earnings – $46.83

5. Geographers
study the Earth and its land, features and inhabitants. They gather
geographic data through field observations, maps, photographs, satellite
imagery and censuses.

2011-2016 job growth – 11%

2016-2021 job growth – 11%

Median hourly earnings – $34.95

6. Grounds maintenance workersensure
that the grounds of houses, businesses and parks are attractive,
orderly and healthy in order to provide a pleasant outdoor environment.

2011-2016 job growth – 10%

2016-2021 job growth – 6%

Median hourly earnings – $14.47

7. Landscape architects design parks and the outdoor spaces of campuses, recreational facilities, private homes and other open spaces.

2011-2016 job growth – 8%

2016-2021 job growth – 3%

Median hourly earnings – $29.35

8. Marine engineers and naval architects
design, build and maintain ships from aircraft carriers to submarines,
from sailboats to tankers. Also known as marine design engineers or
marine mechanical engineers, marine engineers are primarily responsible
for the internal systems of a ship, such as propulsion, electrical,
refrigeration and steering. Naval architects are primarily responsible
for ship design, including the form, structure and stability of hulls.

2011-2016 job growth –

2016-2021 job growth –

Median hourly earnings –

9. Zoologists and wildlife biologists
study animals and other wildlife and how they interact with their
ecosystems. They study the physical characteristics of animals, animal
behaviors and the impacts humans have on wildlife and natural habitats.

2011-2016 job growth – 3%

2016-2021 job growth – 5%

Median hourly earnings – $28.67

10. Forestersmanage the overall land quality of forests, parks, rangelands and other natural resources.

College graduation season is upon us, and there's no shortage of
advice columnists offering tips to recent college grads on how to land
that first, full-time job. Some discuss what today's employers are
looking for—candidates who are resourceful, intuitive, self-starting and
sincere (like that's a surprise)—while others suggest strategies for
devising eye-catching resumes.
This isn't one of those columns. My financial services colleagues and
I actually had a preference for hiring recent grads for three good
reasons:They travel light. Although most will have worked
part-time while in college and, ideally, completed an internship that
coincided with their studies and professional aspirations, recent grads
come with relatively little baggage. In other words, there aren't a lot
of bad habits to break or attitudes to change.They're malleable. Because they travel light and are
usually pretty enthusiastic about their first full-time gig, recent
grads are more easily trained.They know more than we do. No matter how with it we
hirers believe we are, recent grads are also that much more
comfortable—often to the point of fearlessness—with technology.
Consequently, we learned as much from them as they from us.
Contrary to what you might believe or hope, the hiring process isn't
akin to speed dating. In fact, although many of us feel good about the
gut decisions we often make on the fly, I've learned the hard way that
first impressions aren't always correct. That's why God invented second
and third interviews.
So here's how to get started.
Your resume should coincide with the position you
seek or the posting to which you are responding. Not only should you not
embellish it, but you should absolutely never misstate any of your
qualifications, experiences or academic background. You never know who's
going to pick up the phone to check on these.
Also, take care to choose your references wisely—in particular, those
who can speak to the qualifications you need for the position you have
in mind—and make certain they're prepared for the call. I can't tell you
how many times I've contacted an unprepared or-, worse- , a reference
who didn't even know that his or her name was given..., to the detriment
of the applicant.
Your cover letter is equally important. Use it to
make a brief and respectful case for your favorable consideration while
at the same time a glimpse of your personality. Believe me, it makes a
difference to know that as focused and determined as you may be, you
don't take yourself more seriously than you should.
Now, suppose that your resume and cover letter do what they're
supposed to do: attract interest. It's time to prepare for the first
hurdle: the dreaded phone screen. Sure, we're trying to weed out the
obvious bad fits crazies and those who are inexplicably incapable of
advocating for themselves. But we're also looking for those who've taken
the time do the research into what we do, how we do it, and are able to
persuasively articulate how they believe they can help, (if only we
would agree to meet them).
You see, the singular objective for the phone screen is to score an in-person interview.
It's where you'll have as much of an opportunity to impress as you will
to assess. I'll discuss that in a minute. In the Meantime, keep these
three things in mind.Dress appropriately. Even if they say they're business casual, endure the ridicule and crank it up a notch to show respect.Speak knowledgably and confidently on the subjects you know. Never attempt to bluff your way through the things you don't know. The odds are against you on that one.Be prepared to ask questions. Many interviewers
close by asking if the candidate has any questions he or she would like
to ask. "Nope" is not a good answer. In fact, you should look at that
question as an ideal opportunity to showcase the initiative you took by
researching the organization in advance of your meeting.Ask for the timeline. The close of the interview is
also a good time to ask for a sense for their decision-making process
and for permission to follow up at a later date.
Two more things to do as you prepare for your audition.Clean up your online act. So much information is so
readily available these days that it would be a mistake to believe that
the things you wouldn't want your mother to see won't end up on a
prospective employer's monitor.Personal financial management counts. Although many states have enacted or are contemplating legislation that limits the use of credit scores
and credit bureau reports in the hiring process, there are exceptions.
My own industry, for example, is one of those because our positions are
often directly or indirectly tied to financial transactions.
And if the opportunity you seek is one that requires a credit check as part of the hiring process, know these three things:
First, under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), no employer is permitted to order your credit report without your written consent.
Second, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the three principal credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) are required to provide you with a free credit report, annually. It would be agood idea to know what yours says before you're asked about it.
Third, if there are items on your report that concern you, I suggest
you discuss these forthrightly when you're asked to grant that
permission, because that's when it'll count—not before.
I've heard lots of stories about divorces, medical emergencies, student loan burdens
and even past employment interruptions. Life happens, and. But as long
your credit bureau report shows that you have or are working through
your problems in a responsible manner, you shouldn't be overly
concerned. On the other hand, betting that a chronic case of late payments and account closures won't come up isn't one a bet worth taking.
Finally, I said before that in-person interviews are opportunities
for mutual assessment. In particular, there are three things to consider
as you make your way through the process.Is this the kind of work you want to do? Does it
coincide with your education and interests? Will the tasks that you'll
be asked to complete present enough of a challenging enough to keep you
engaged?How do you feel about the people and the work environment?
In particular, what do you think of the person to whom you'll report?
What about the people with whom you'll work? What's your sense of the
environment: calm, busy, frenetic, pressure cooker?Will these folks help you to become more tomorrow than you are today?
Will they train and mentor you? Do they offer a reasonably attainable
career path? Is there a continuing education reimbursement program? Will
there be opportunities to explore other areas within the organization
if you choose?
This last group of questions is the most important of them all. Not
only does it represent the difference between a short-term job and,
potentially, a lifelong career, but it also offers invaluable insight
into how management views its employees—as individuals who are worthy of
investment or commodities to plug and play.
The right kind of employer will want to do all they can to make your
time there worthwhile—for both your sakes—not least because recruiting,
onboarding, training and helping new hires to become productive is
time-consuming and costly. So it follows that if your prospective
employer is so inclined, you can also look forward to a compensation
package that's both competitive and fair.

The legal marijuana industry in the U.S. has expanded quite a bit in recent years. Medical marijuana is now available in more than 20 states,
and several have even legalized it for recreational use. An entirely
new cluster of jobs have become available alongside this growth, and
because the industry is so new, workers may or may not be familiar with
all of their options. Jobs in the legal marijuana industry extend beyond
growers and dispensary workers. Here are a few other new and less well-known job titles within the field.1. Petitioners.
There are a lot of individuals who've helped encourage the expansion
of the legal marijuana industry, and the work isn't over yet. In
addition to legal marijuana lobbyists,
who also work on the legislation side of things, some folks work as
petitioners collecting signatures and acting as advocates. This could be
a great option for folks who are passionate and knowledgeable about the
cause.2. Reviewers.
In states where marijuana is legal for recreational use, some folks
are starting to find jobs working as reviewers. The process of
reflecting on and writing about different strains is more complicated
than most people think, as different products vary considerably and in a number of ways. These workers really need to know their stuff, and they should have solid writing skills as well.3. Trimmers.
In order to prepare the plant for next steps, some maintenance is
required – mainly the cutting away of leaves. The work can be a bit
tedious, but while bud-trimmers need some training and expertise, they
don't require nearly as much as other professionals in the field.
Therefore, this is a great entry-level position for someone working to
break into the industry.4. Edible creators.
Working as an edible creator requires a lot of expertise. Also,
states have different laws about how edibles need to be labeled and how
they're regulated. But, for some folks, working to infuse marijuana into
everything from soda to oatmeal to candy could be a dream come true.5. Marijuana journalists.
Similar to reviewers, marijuana journalists work within the industry
to publish articles on a wide variety of topics. In addition to talking
about differences between the strains, they might also review
dispensaries or talk about how the culture around legal marijuana is
changing. In order to land one of these positions, one would need
excellent writing skills and they should also have their finger on the
pulse of their local industry.6. Analytical chemist.
For serious scientists looking to work within the industry, a job as
an analytical chemist could be perfect. These folks work in labs and
test for potency, pesticides, heavy metals, etc. They help regulate
products for consistency and safety. This is important and highly
skilled work that must be done by a trained chemist.

What's in a name? It could be a significant amount of money. Earnest, an online lender, recently published a report
analyzing various job titles and their corresponding salaries. While
the actual day-to-day differences in responsibilities could be very
little, these keyword variations translate potentially into a
significant salary increase.Adding "Lead" to Your Title
If you're determined to earn more money, adding a "lead" to your title is a worthwhile goal. The median difference in salary between those who are considered a "Lead Developer"
and those who aren't, for example, is $23,000, according to Earnest's
data. While this is a title that can require several years of experience
and an impressive portfolio, it's a goal to work toward that could pay
off very well in the long run.Being Called a "Director"
A similar term, with similar earning potential: those being called
directors enjoy a median salary difference of $21,000 from others with a
similar function but a less senior title. If you're currently planning
to negotiate
a promotion or raise, consider the long-term potential of securing a
better title that will then be leverage for a salary hike later on. It's
tempting to always ask for more money, but sometimes a better title
could be the smart move that leads to a bigger number in your next
opportunity. (Although, of course, there's no reason not to try for
both.)If You're Considered a "Senior"
Don't expect a senior title if you're just a few years out of school.
That said, it's worth bringing up a title change if you find yourself
consistently in the mentorship role
within the team to those with less experience or skill. With a median
difference of $20,000, it's not to be sniffed at by any means.

What about those keywords that might not bring in as much money? If
your title includes the terms "assistant," "associate," or "staff," it
could be holding you back from earning more. "Assistant" positions can
have a median negative difference of $10,000 in annual salary, while
"staff" indicates that a person could be earning up to $15,000 less than
someone with essentially the same role. These titles tend to describe
graduate-level or junior employees, so if you find yourself still
working under one of them but feel you have lots of valuable experience
to offer, it might be time to discuss a change with your manager.

A comprehensive guide to starting a successful side business before you make your startup dream a full-time reality.

You want to start a business. You need to start a business. But you're not quite ready to quit your job and take the plunge.
Don't feel bad--here's one reason you should feel that way.
Fortunately, there's a great alternative: starting your own business while keeping your day job.
The following is a guest post from Ryan Robinson, an entrepreneur and marketer who teaches people how to create meaningful self-employed careers. (His online courses "The Launch While Working Formula" and "Writing a Winning Freelance Proposal" can teach you how to start and grow your own business while working a full-time job.)

Here's Ryan:
Of all the side businesses
you can effectively grow while keeping your day job, freelancing is one
of the most feasible. At its core, you're essentially using your
skills--the tasks and abilities you've already mastered--to take on
contract work and augment your income. What's more, it's attractive for
many reasons beyond just the money.
But, before getting started with your freelance business, you need to
get very clear on why you want to freelance in the first place. Once
you have your goals in mind, how you use your limited amount of time
will greatly determine your level of success with freelancing.1. Define Your Goals.
Without clearly defined, easily measurable goals, you're going to have a very difficult time getting to where you want to go.

Is freelancing a path to just earning extra income on the side of your day job?

Do you eventually want to become a full-time freelancer because of the lifestyle benefits of being your own boss?

Are you looking to use freelancing as a steppingstone to eventually achieving a different goal entirely?

Regardless of what your ultimate goal is, you need to make it
abundantly clear. Take the time to understand why you're considering
starting a freelance business, and make sure it's the right move in your
progression toward achieving your bigger-picture goal.
Let's say your bigger-picture goal is to become a fully self-employed
freelancer. You'll set your own hours, decide whom you want to work
with, and call all the shots in your business. Now, how do you get
there?
You know that you'll need to get your freelance income up to a
sustainable, healthy level that allows you to eventually quit your day
job without stress about where your next paycheck is going to come from.
Because I've quit my day job too early in the past, my personal rule is that I must reach a side income of at least 75 percent of what my salaried job pays me, before even considering quitting to pursue my side business full time.
Starting with your freelance income target, based on your living
expenses, risk tolerance, and realistic expectations on how long your
savings can sustain you, now you can back into a rough idea of how many
clients you'll need (and what you'll have to charge them), before making
it to the point where you'll be able to leave your day job to freelance
full time.2. Find a Profitable Niche.
Let's assume you're a graphic designer by trade, or you've at least
been building your skills with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop in your
free time. Clearly, there are a lot of competitors in your industry who
will be willing to charge much lower rates than you, no matter what you
do. There are people from all around the world with lower costs of
living who will always be willing to accept lesser-paid gigs than you.
Get over the idea of trying to compete on price as a freelancer, right
now.
It's not worth racing other people to the bottom, especially when sites like Fiverr and Upwork
already have countless options for low-priced freelancers. Side note: I
recommend not ever listing your services on either of those sites,
unless you absolutely need to (after striking out trying everything in
this post).
By taking the time to find a profitable niche for your freelance
business, you're actively seeking out an industry and type of client
that value quality. When you're in a space that competes on quality,
you'll completely change the ways that you sell your services. You'll be competing on value, not price.
Instead of taking any graphic design project that comes your way,
choose to concentrate solely on infographic design for startup blogs, or
e-book layouts for enterprise tech companies. Choose an area that
genuinely interests you, and focus on becoming the best designer in that
narrow space.
Once you've made yourself invaluable within your niche, you'll have a
platform by which you can expand your freelance business in any
direction you'd like.3. Identify Your Target Clients.
Attracting the right types of clients for your freelance business is just as important as finding a profitable niche.
As you're getting started, it's fine to take a bit more of a shotgun
approach to landing a few gigs. Make some initial assumptions about whom
you want to work with and target them first. After working with a few
of them, you'll develop a very clear sense of whether to continue
pursuing similar clients.
In my freelance business, I've honed my target client profile over
time to matching only two very specific types of businesses: high-growth
tech startups and business influencers with well-established personal
brands. The primary reasons I've narrowed the focus of my freelance
business this far are because I work best with these types of (very
similar) clients, and they run in similar circles that lead to frequent
referrals. I'm building my reputation within my niche.
This is a difficult decision to make at first, because it means
turning away a lot of business. However, the process of narrowing your
target clients to those you work with best will help you achieve much
better results in the long run. Once you have a few clients that are
willing to advocate for you, the momentum will really pick up.
Going back to our focus of competing on value, not price, everything
you do in regard to starting your freelance business--especially when
you have a very limited amount of free time--needs to point back to your
ability to deliver the highest-quality results for your clients. As one
of my freelance idols, Paul Jarvis, so eloquently put it over on the CreativeLive blog, "make your clients so happy & successful that they become your sales force."
Your goal is to build your authority and eventually be seen as the
go-to resource for a specific type of client. By appealing so well to a
narrow (well-selected) niche, your target clients will have a very quick
path to deciding that you're the best person to help them with their
projects. This, above all else, is the path to charging premium rates
without anyone batting an eye at the first prices you throw out.
To determine the best types of target clients for your freelance business, ask yourself these three questions:

Which businesses will find my services useful?

Which businesses can afford to pay the prices I'll need to charge, in order to get to my income goal?

Who are the decision makers within these businesses, and what can I
learn about their demographics and interests? Can I find a way to
connect with them on a personal level?

My target clients--smaller startup teams and founders with personal
brands--can instantly relate to me because of my personal affinity to
startups. Because my portfolio work is directly applicable to what they
do, they also start out with much more confidence that I'll be able to
drive similar results for their business, too.4. Set Strategic Prices for Your Services.
I've spoken a lot about setting the right prices for your freelance
business. I even architected an infographic over on CreativeLive that
walks you through the process of setting your freelance hourly rate.
From a pure numbers perspective, this calculator from MotiveApp
is as good as it gets for determining what your hourly rate needs to
be, in order to meet your income goals and expense levels. It's a great
tool for double-checking that you're charging enough to afford the
lifestyle you want to live, but I recommend determining your pricing
strategy with a very different progression in mind. Remember, you need
to price yourself on the basis of the value you deliver--not on the basis of what your competitors are charging.
Don't allow anyone else to dictate the terms by which you define your value. That's not what freelancing is about.
In this post on his blog,
Neil Patel chronicles many of the lessons he learned while running an
SEO consulting business. A lesson that stood out for me is that the more
you charge, the less clients complain. Because Patel very astutely
selected target clients that have big budgets, he knows that they're
much more willing to spend money--in order to make that money back
through investing in your services. Smaller clients, on the other hand,
often don't have as much money to play with, and thus can't sustain much
in terms of losses when projects don't deliver big returns.There's no such thing as prices that are too high. Your prices
may be too high (or too low) for the types of clients you're targeting,
but if you do your homework when deciding whom to pitch your services
to, you'll be selling exactly what your clients need--for a price they
can justify.
For my freelance content marketing services, I write well-researched,
in-depth blog content for my clients. Most of my content is in the
range of 1,500 to 2,500 words per piece, and designed to rank well in
organic search results, which is extremely valuable for most businesses.
Because my work extends beyond just writing, and into strategic
distribution and driving traffic after the content publishes, I add a
lot more value for my clients than any other "writer" can bring to the
table. Back when I decided to start a business, I knew that I wanted to target premium clients that would pay more for that extra value.
They're going to hire someone to help with their projects, so it's
just a matter of showing them you're the right person to help. Price
becomes a secondary concern, if they're already convinced that you're
the best person for the job. It's business and they'll make it work, or
it wasn't meant to be.5. Build a High-Quality Portfolio Website.
Because I'm such a huge advocate of creating a powerful online
presence to support a freelance business, I brought in an expert, Laurence Bradford, to share all of the essential elements to building a freelance portfolio that wins you high-value clients.
As a starting point, let's understand what the purpose of having a
portfolio website is. It's often the first impression a potential client
will have of you, your style, your work, and the past clients (or
companies) you've worked with. You need to effectively communicate the
services you offer, and who they're for. Beyond that, you need to sell
why you're the best person for this type of work--for the clients you
want to work with.
Straight from Laurence, here's what every freelance portfolio needs to do to be truly effective at selling your services:

Communicate your specialty and display examples of your work.

List your contact information and show off your personality.

Highlight your relevant skills, education, and accomplishments.

Display testimonials (even if they're from co-workers or former bosses when you're just getting started).

Have regular updates that show your evolution, new clients, and latest work.

As you're developing your portfolio site, find other freelancers
within your space and get some inspiration from them. Uncover how
they're positioning themselves and communicating their value
propositions, and formulate how to start a freelance business your way.6. Create Examples of What You Can Deliver (on Your Portfolio Site).
You want your website to serve as a destination to demonstrate your
expertise. With that in mind, one of the best ways to show you're in the
know within your space is by regularly publishing new content, images,
or videos (depending upon the content medium you work in) that will
impress your target clients. Once you have an understanding of what your
clients need, go out and create examples of that exact type of
content--as if you had been hired to produce it--for your website.
There's no better way to sell your services
than to already show your clients that you can create what they need.
What's more, it will make their projects that much easier when you have a
library of related work to pull from for inspiration.
My website is a living example of this. At least once per month, I
make a point of publishing a very thorough, 4,000-word-plus blog post on
a topic related to starting and growing a profitable side business, the
theme of everything on my site.

Eleven of the jobs make an average of over $100K/year. Out of those
eleven, eight of them all have the word "manager" in their title. But,
it's not the "traditional" manager quality we think of.Solution Provider = More Money

What I notice about these eight particular $100K jobs is the
management aspect requires them to be in charge of creating and
delivering a solution. It's not about managing staff, it's about
delivering specific results to the bottom line. Take a look:

Tax Manager
Engagement Manager
Product Manager
Analytics Manager
Software Development Manager
Product Development Manager
Finance Manager
Strategy Manager
All the jobs above directly save or make a company money. The person
doing the job has the ability to know if they are adding value to the
organization. Which means, when they do their job well, they have the
ability to demand more in return (i.e. justify raises, bonuses, flex
schedule, etc.)

Want A Better Job? Create More Quantifiable Value
For those of you looking for a better job,
the lesson is this: you're a business-of-one selling your services to
an employer. If you want to earn more, you must validate and provide
clear evidence to support how you will save or make the company enough
money to justify employing you at your desired pay level. It's not up to
them, it's up to you. This is particularly true when interviewing for a
job. If you don't know how to present your abilities properly, you
won't get the job offer.
In today's competitive job market, you not only need to provide
solutions for employers, you need to effectively market your expertise
and showcase the value of those solutions too. Every business,
especially a business-of-one, needs a good marketing strategy to stay in business!

Shutterstock
A lot of factors contribute to happiness at work: flexible hours, a
competitive salary, a meaningful purpose. But where you live can also
play a role in how likely you are to be satisfied at work.
Job search website Indeed just released their job happiness index for 2016,
which included a ranking of the happiest metro areas in the US. The
report ranked the 50 most populous cities in the country by average job
satisfaction rating on a scale of one to five, culled from Indeed's
database of more than 10 million employee reviews.
California came on out top, encompassing six of the top-20 cities.
Los Angeles boasts the happiest employees in the country, followed by
Miami and San Diego.
Read on to see the rest of the top-20 cities, with population and income data from the US Census Bureau.

"There are definitely some lies that you will likely have to tell in
order to get hired for a new job," he explains. "You certainly shouldn't
lie about abilities that you don't really have. There's no point in
being hired for a job that you can't actually do."

You also shouldn't lie about working somewhere you haven't or obtaining
educational credentials you haven't actually earned, he adds. "These are
easily confirmed in background checks and tend to come out in the end."

But some half-truths, exaggerations, or white lies on your résumé, application, or in an interview are okay, he says.

Here are a few that are acceptable in certain situations:

1. 'Yup, I've only worked at these three companies.'

"If you've worked somewhere for a very short period of time, or where it
ended badly — you were fired for cause, or burned bridges on your way
out — leave it off your résumé," Harris says. "A résumé doesn't have to
be a comprehensive list of everything you've done. It's a marketing tool
for the job you want. So just list the relevant, positive experiences."

2. 'I loved everyone on the old team.'

Nobody likes everyone, and there are probably some difficult personalities at every workplace.

"However, you should tell every future employer how great the staff was
at your previous job, and how it was a privilege to work with such great
people," he suggests. "Anything else will make you sound like a
complainer and potentially a problem personality yourself."

3. 'My interests include reading, traveling, charity work ... '

If your real passions are beer, popcorn, and Netflix, you should probably not mention those in your job interview (unless, of course, you're applying for a job with Netflix, or Pop Secret, or Sam Adams).

"If you're going to list interests at all on your résumé or discuss them
in your interview, make sure they relate directly to the job or the
culture of the company you are applying to," says Harris. "Does the
company page include photos of the team on charity mountain bike rides?
If so, your interests include mountain biking and charity fund raising."

4. 'My last boss was the greatest.'

The most common reason people leave jobs is because of their
relationship with their manager. But that's not something you can
confide in a future boss.
"Say your old manager was a great leader and you learned a lot from
them," he advises. "Bad mouthing your old boss will have the potential
new one wondering what you'll say about them next."

5. 'I am considering leaving my job because this opportunity seems to great to pass up.'

The real reason you're leaving probably has something to do with the
boss, the coworkers, the work itself, the commute, or the money. "But
that's not what you say," Harris explains. "Tell your potential new boss
that it's because this opportunity — the one at their company — came
along. It's the career move you've been waiting for and you are
passionate about working for them specifically."

6. 'My greatest weakness is ... '

You shouldn't make something up — but you also shouldn't necessarily share your actualgreatest weakness.

"Everyone lies when answering this question," says Harris. "That's how
the game is played. You don't honestly say that your greatest weakness
is inattention to detail or accepting feedback gracefully."

Instead, share a weakness that doesn't actually affect your ability to
do the job at hand, and explain how you're working to improve it.

"This shows that you are self-aware and proactive," he adds.

If you get caught...

Harris says these are the kinds of lies that you are very unlikely to be
caught for. But if you do get caught in an outright lie, apologize, he
suggests.

"Explain that you were so passionate for the role that you stretched the
truth in order to get the chance to prove what you could really do on
the job. You may still be cooked anyway, but it's worth a shot," he
concludes.

Learn these skills, and your next job will come easily.

It's January, so there's a good chance you're on the hunt for a new job.

According to sites like Monster.com and LinkedIn, this is the most popular time of year for job seekers to kick off their search.

To find out what it takes to successfully land a job, LinkedIn analyzed all of the hiring and recruiting activity that occurred on its site in 2015, and uncovered the 25 hottest skills in 14 different countries.

"If your skills fit one or more of these skills categories (a grouping of related skills), there's a chance you either started a new job or attracted the interest of recruiters last year," explains LinkedIn researcher Sohan Murthy in a recent LinkedIn post. "We noticed that companies were still recruiting and hiring for these skills well into the final months of 2015, so we expect these skills will remain in-demand in the early part of 2016. This means if you have one or more of these skills, you're likely to continue getting interest from recruiters in the new year."

Remember: Be kind, smart and always remain professional.

The
2015 semester has come to a close, and for college seniors, the college
experience isn't far behind. If you're a college senior, and you're
thinking about embarking on your first career, you might find yourself
feeling a little intimidated by the unknown. But fear not, PayScale has
your back. Here are five questions to ask to prepare you for your first
post-college job in the real world.
1. How Does Your Employer Define Success?From a personal experience, I know that having this conversation with your boss will make a huge impact on both your work and your salary.
Every job defines success differently, and that's exactly why you need
to have this conversation. Perhaps it's the total number of customers
you get, a quota you meet, or a certain number of website visits you
get. Talk with your boss to set clear, attainable goals that you both
agree upon. Still not convinced? Think about it: your goals are the
foundation for all the work you will do in a given day. Your goals,
depending on whether you reach them or not, can also significantly help
you leverage your salary when it comes to review time. If you and your
employer are not clear on common goals, there is nothing substantial to
show how hard you have worked.

2. What's the Best Way to Communicate With Your Boss?As
a millennial, I tend to communicate with my boss through email and an
amazing internal chat system we use. Perhaps it's the '90s kid in me,
but growing up using things like AOL and AIM makes instant messaging a
natural choice for me to communicate. The thing is, everyone is
different. Even if your company does provide you will cool communication
tools like HipChat or Slack,
you may have the one boss that actually requires you to get out of your
seat and have a real conversation. Communication styles are not a
one-size-fits-all, and being flexible and showing that you can still
communicate without the internet will help you stand out from your other
millennial co-workers. So take off your headphones, get up, and go have
an articulate conversation with your boss.

3. Have You Researched Your New Industry?This
is perhaps the least-talked about question, but do you know what kind
of industry you're going to be working in? More than likely, it isn't
one you studied in college – but that's okay. Take English majors,
for example. Not every English major can grow up to be an English
teacher or a famous author, so you will often see English majors in
occupations like marketing, copywriting, and even journalism. But no
matter what occupation you have, you need to familiarize yourself with
the industry. Got a job in the VoIP community? You need to to do a deep
dive in telecom. Working for an agency? You better learn about all your
new clients (and their industries). Unless you're willing to completely
immerse yourself in your focus industry, you will struggle to see
success.

4. Did You Forget There Are No Syllabi For New Jobs?Not
to pick on college students, but post-grads have a reputation of
entering the workforce incredibly unprepared, in the sense that people
(millennials) are expecting syllabus-like instructions for working real
jobs. The cold, hard reality is that there are no syllabi and rarely are
there ever instructions. The company you work for has hired you because
they feel confident in your abilities to do your job without
step-by-step instructions. Essentially, you were hired TO write your
syllabus, a.k.a. the way you're going to own your new position. Use the confidence your company has in you to make your job role bigger and better than it was designed to be.

5. In General, Be Kind, Be Smart, and Always Be Professional.It
doesn't matter if you have been in your job for 40 minutes or 40 years:
you can still get fired at the drop of a hat for being unprofessional.
For someone relatively new to the workforce, it comes down to minding
the basics. Dress for the part, be on time, and be kind to those around you.
Say please and thank you, and don't act like a know-it-all. After all,
you've been hired because a company likes you enough to pay you money to
learn and grow with them, amiright?